Want to Capture a Pokémon? Look Behind That Tree

SAN FRANCISCO — Pokémon is about to leave the realm of pure fantasy and jump into the real world.

Niantic — the maker of the smartphone game Ingress, which combines onscreen actions with physical locations that players must visit — is using similar concepts to build Pokémon Go, the latest installment in the best-selling Pokémon video game series.

Like earlier Pokémon games, players will throw virtual balls to capture “pocket monsters,” or Pokémon. They can be used to defend gyms, where the creatures train to become stronger. Rivals can try to take over the gym by using their own monsters to attack the gym’s protectors.

But the new game will also force players to look beyond their screens and visit places in the real world. As in Ingress, places like parks, historical markers, libraries, churches and commuter stations will hold valuable items in the game, retrievable only when physically close to the locations. To hatch a new Pokémon from an egg, players will have to walk one kilometer, as measured by the smartphone’s sensors. The game will use the phone’s camera to show virtual Pokémon dancing near a park bench or hiding in a bush, trying to evade capture.

“There’s a lot of Ingress in it — the idea of building it around certain locations, and those locations are what give you the things that you need to play the game and where the action takes place,” John Hanke, Niantic’s chief executive, said in an interview. “But then this whole element of all the different Pokémon, and capturing them and battling with them, is, of course, new.”

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Pokémon Go, which is being developed in partnership with the Pokémon Company, is now in field testing in the United States, Japan, Australia and New Zealand. (If you want to join the test, the company is still accepting applications.) The final game is expected to be released later this year.

One challenge for Niantic is to figure out how to keep players safe as they walk around to find point-scoring opportunities while looking at the game screen.

For Pokémon Go, which will appeal to children as well as adults, Niantic is including features to discourage people from constantly staring at their phones.

Vibrations will alert players to nearby Pokémon and locations in the game. For children playing with a parent, an optional wrist button can be paired with the phone, buzzing when there is something nearby and allowing players to capture Pokémon with a single click.

“It’s designed to facilitate collaborative play between a parent and child,” Mr. Hanke said.